Credential Consumer Identities
This page is the technical reference for credential consumer identities — the key-value maps OCM uses to look up credentials for a given operation. For a high-level introduction, see Credential System.
For the credential types that go in the credentials: field of each consumer entry,
see Reference: Credential Types.
Overview
Every time OCM needs credentials (accessing a registry, signing a component version), it constructs a **lookup identity ** — a map of string attributes describing what it needs credentials for. The credential system then searches configured consumers for a matching entry.
A consumer entry in .ocmconfig looks like this:
type: generic.config.ocm.software/v1
configurations:
- type: credentials.config.ocm.software
consumers:
- identity:
type: <identity-type>
# ... type-specific attributes
credentials:
- type: Credentials/v1
properties:
# ... key-value credential propertiesThe consumer identity type is extensible — any string in Name or Name/Version format can be used.
Plugins and integrations can introduce additional types (e.g. AWSSecretsManager, HashiCorpVault, MavenRepository).
The following types are defined by the core OCM modules:
| Identity Type | Used For |
|---|---|
OCIRegistry | Authenticating against OCI registries |
HelmChartRepository | Authenticating against Helm chart repositories |
Wget | Authenticating against plain HTTP/HTTPS servers |
GitHubRepository | Authenticating against the GitHub REST API |
RSA/v1alpha1 | Providing signing and verification keys |
OCIRegistry
Used when OCM accesses an OCI registry — pushing, pulling, or resolving component versions and resources.
Identity Attributes
| Attribute | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
type | Yes | Must be OCIRegistry |
hostname | Yes | Registry hostname (e.g. ghcr.io, registry.example.com) |
path | No | Repository path. Supports glob patterns (* matches one path segment). If omitted, matches any path on the hostname. |
scheme | No | URL scheme (https, http, oci). If omitted, matches any scheme. If set, must match exactly. |
port | No | Port number as string. Default ports are applied when scheme is set: https and oci default to 443, http defaults to 80. |
Credential Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
username | Username for basic authentication |
password | Password for basic authentication |
accessToken | Bearer token sent directly to the registry (Docker token flow) |
refreshToken | OAuth2 refresh token exchanged for an access token before each request |
Token fields take precedence over username/password when both are present. Use OCICredentials/v1 for the full typed field reference.
Matching Behavior
Matching runs three chained checks — all must pass:
- Path matcher — compares
pathusingpath.Match(glob).*matches one segment, not across/. If the configured entry has nopath, any request path is accepted. - URL matcher — compares
scheme,hostname, andport. Applies default ports when a scheme is present (https→443,http→80). - Equality matcher — all remaining attributes (like
type) must be exactly equal.
For detailed matching examples and edge cases, see Tutorial: Understand Credential Resolution.
Examples
Hostname only — matches all paths on ghcr.io:
- identity:
type: OCIRegistry
hostname: ghcr.io
credentials:
- type: OCICredentials/v1
username: my-user
password: ghp_tokenHostname + path glob — matches any single-segment path under my-org/:
- identity:
type: OCIRegistry
hostname: ghcr.io
path: my-org/*
credentials:
- type: OCICredentials/v1
username: org-user
password: ghp_org_tokenHostname + scheme + port — matches only HTTPS on a custom port:
- identity:
type: OCIRegistry
hostname: registry.internal
scheme: https
port: "8443"
credentials:
- type: OCICredentials/v1
username: internal-user
password: internal_passHelmChartRepository
Used when OCM accesses a remote Helm chart repository — pulling or resolving Helm charts referenced as resources. The
identity is derived from the Helm repository URL using the same URL-based attributes as OCIRegistry.
Identity Attributes
| Attribute | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
type | Yes | Must be HelmChartRepository |
hostname | Yes | Repository hostname (e.g. charts.example.com, registry.example.com) |
path | No | Repository path (e.g. stable). If omitted, matches any path on the hostname. |
scheme | No | URL scheme (https, http, oci). If omitted, matches any scheme. |
port | No | Port number as string. If omitted, matches any port. |
Credential Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
username | Repository username |
password | Repository password or token |
Examples
HTTPS Helm repository:
- identity:
type: HelmChartRepository
hostname: charts.example.com
path: stable
credentials:
- type: HelmHTTPCredentials/v1
username: helm-user
password: helm-tokenOCI-based Helm repository:
- identity:
type: HelmChartRepository
hostname: registry.example.com
scheme: oci
credentials:
- type: OCICredentials/v1
username: registry-user
password: registry-tokenWget
Used when OCM fetches a resource over plain HTTP or HTTPS through the
Wget/v1 access type and the
Wget/v1 input type. The identity is derived from the resource
url; the access type and the input type derive it identically, so a single consumer entry covers both.
Identity Attributes
| Attribute | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
type | Yes | Must be Wget |
hostname | Yes | Server hostname (e.g. downloads.example.com) |
path | No | URL path without the leading /. Supports glob patterns (* matches one path segment). If omitted, matches any path on the hostname. |
scheme | No | URL scheme (https, http). If omitted, matches any scheme. If set, must match exactly. |
port | No | Port number as string. During matching, default ports are applied when scheme is set: https defaults to 443, http to 80. |
Example derivation: for url: https://downloads.example.com/myapp/1.0.0/myapp.tar.gz, the lookup identity is:
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
type | Wget |
hostname | downloads.example.com |
scheme | https |
path | myapp/1.0.0/myapp.tar.gz |
The URL carries no explicit port, so no port attribute is derived. Default ports stay implicit in the identity and
are applied by the URL matcher instead, so this identity matches a consumer entry with port: "443" as well as one
with no port at all. A URL that names its port (https://downloads.example.com:8443/...) does derive
port: "8443".
Credential Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
username | Username for HTTP basic authentication |
password | Password for HTTP basic authentication |
identityToken | Bearer token sent as Authorization: Bearer <token>. Takes precedence over Basic Auth. |
certificate | PEM-encoded client certificate for mutual TLS |
privateKey | PEM-encoded private key paired with certificate |
certificateAuthority | PEM-encoded CA certificate used to verify the server certificate. Only applied together with certificate. |
Use WgetCredentials/v1 for the typed field reference.
Basic Auth and a bearer token both set the Authorization header and are therefore mutually exclusive. When both are
configured, the bearer token wins and a warning is logged. The mutual TLS certificate is a transport-layer credential
and combines with either of them, but it only takes effect during a TLS handshake: supplying one for an http:// URL
logs a warning and has no effect.
Matching Behavior
The same three chained checks as OCIRegistry apply: path glob, URL (scheme, hostname, port with
default-port handling), then exact equality on the remaining attributes.
The identity type is matched by exact string and is unversioned, so it must be written as type: Wget. Neither
Wget/v1 (the name of the
access and input type) nor the lowercase wget used by OCM v1
will match. A non-matching entry fails silently: no credentials are resolved and the request goes out unauthenticated,
so the symptom is a 401 from the server rather than a configuration error.
Examples
Hostname only. Matches every download from that host:
- identity:
type: Wget
hostname: downloads.example.com
credentials:
- type: WgetCredentials/v1
username: download-user
password: download-tokenBearer token for a single path segment (matches artifacts/build.zip, not artifacts/ci/build.zip):
- identity:
type: Wget
hostname: api.example.com
scheme: https
path: artifacts/*
credentials:
- type: WgetCredentials/v1
identityToken: eyJhbGciOi...Mutual TLS against an internal server:
- identity:
type: Wget
hostname: artifacts.internal
scheme: https
port: "8443"
credentials:
- type: WgetCredentials/v1
certificate: |
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDdzCCAl+gAwIBAgIEbGVnYWw...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
privateKey: |
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEvQIBADANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQ...
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
certificateAuthority: |
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDQTCCAimgAwIBAgITBmyf...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----For migrating a Wget consumer entry from OCM v1, covering the renamed identity type, the pathprefix to path
conversion, and the inverted authentication precedence, see
Tutorial: Work with HTTP Resources.
GitHubRepository
Used when OCM resolves or downloads a resource with a GitHub/v1 access — resolving a ref to a commit or fetching a
commit’s source archive via the GitHub REST API. The identity is derived from the access’s repoUrl. Credentials are
optional; see the note on anonymous access under
GitHubCredentials/v1.
Identity Attributes
| Attribute | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
type | Yes | Must be GitHubRepository |
hostname | Yes | Repository hostname (e.g. github.com, a GitHub Enterprise host) |
path | No | Repository path (e.g. open-component-model/open-component-model). If omitted, matches any path. |
scheme | No | URL scheme (https, http). If omitted, matches any scheme. |
port | No | Port number as string. If omitted, the scheme’s default applies (https → 443, http → 80). |
Credential Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
token | GitHub or GitHub Enterprise access token |
Examples
github.com:
- identity:
type: GitHubRepository
hostname: github.com
path: open-component-model/open-component-model
credentials:
- type: GitHubCredentials/v1
token: ghp_example_tokenGitHub Enterprise host:
- identity:
type: GitHubRepository
hostname: git.example.corp
credentials:
- type: GitHubCredentials/v1
token: ghe_example_tokenOmitting path matches every repository on that host.
RSA/v1alpha1
Used when OCM signs or verifies component versions with RSA keys.
Identity Attributes
| Attribute | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
type | Yes | Must be RSA/v1alpha1 |
algorithm | Yes | Signing algorithm. Must be RSASSA-PSS (recommended) or RSASSA-PKCS1-V1_5. |
signature | Yes | Logical signature name (e.g. default). Must match the --signature flag used with ocm sign cv. Defaults to default if not specified on the CLI. |
All three attributes are required. When OCM looks up signing credentials, it always constructs a lookup identity
with type, algorithm, and signature. If your consumer entry omits algorithm, the credential system will not find
a match — even though the signing algorithm defaults to RSASSA-PSS internally.
If you are unsure which algorithm to use, specify algorithm: RSASSA-PSS.
Credential Properties
| Property | Used For | Description |
|---|---|---|
privateKeyPEM | Signing | Inline PEM-encoded private key |
privateKeyPEMFile | Signing | Path to PEM-encoded private key file |
publicKeyPEM | Verification | Inline PEM-encoded public key |
publicKeyPEMFile | Verification | Path to PEM-encoded public key file |
You can specify both privateKeyPEMFile and publicKeyPEMFile in the same entry to use it for both signing and
verification.
When using the legacy Credentials/v1 properties: map instead of RSACredentials/v1, the old snake_case keys
(private_key_pem, private_key_pem_file, public_key_pem, public_key_pem_file) are still accepted as a deprecated
backward-compatibility fallback.
Matching Behavior
Unlike OCI identities, RSA signing identities use strict equality matching — every attribute in the lookup identity must be present in the configured consumer identity with the exact same value. There is no glob or subset matching.
Examples
Signing and verification with default settings:
- identity:
type: RSA/v1alpha1
algorithm: RSASSA-PSS
signature: default
credentials:
- type: RSACredentials/v1
privateKeyPEMFile: /path/to/private-key.pem
publicKeyPEMFile: /path/to/public-key.pemMultiple signature identities (e.g. dev and prod):
- identity:
type: RSA/v1alpha1
algorithm: RSASSA-PSS
signature: dev
credentials:
- type: RSACredentials/v1
privateKeyPEMFile: /path/to/dev/private-key.pem
publicKeyPEMFile: /path/to/dev/public-key.pem
- identity:
type: RSA/v1alpha1
algorithm: RSASSA-PSS
signature: prod
credentials:
- type: RSACredentials/v1
privateKeyPEMFile: /path/to/prod/private-key.pem
publicKeyPEMFile: /path/to/prod/public-key.pemSign with a specific identity:
ocm sign cv --signature dev <component-version>
ocm sign cv --signature prod <component-version>Using PKCS#1 v1.5 algorithm:
- identity:
type: RSA/v1alpha1
algorithm: RSASSA-PKCS1-V1_5
signature: legacy
credentials:
- type: RSACredentials/v1
privateKeyPEMFile: /path/to/private-key.pemComplete Configuration Example
A single .ocmconfig combining registry credentials (with Docker fallback) and signing credentials:
type: generic.config.ocm.software/v1
configurations:
- type: credentials.config.ocm.software
consumers:
# OCI registry — hostname catch-all
- identity:
type: OCIRegistry
hostname: ghcr.io
credentials:
- type: OCICredentials/v1
username: my-user
password: ghp_token
# RSA signing — default signature
- identity:
type: RSA/v1alpha1
algorithm: RSASSA-PSS
signature: default
credentials:
- type: RSACredentials/v1
privateKeyPEMFile: /path/to/private-key.pem
publicKeyPEMFile: /path/to/public-key.pem
# Docker config fallback for registries not matched above
repositories:
- repository:
type: DockerConfig/v1
dockerConfigFile: "~/.docker/config.json"Discovering Credential Types at Runtime
Use ocm describe types credentials to list all credential types registered in your OCM installation — including any
added by installed plugins — and ocm describe types credentials <type> to inspect the fields of a specific type.
Related Documentation
- Concept: Credential System — How the credential system works
- Reference: Credential Types — All built-in typed credential types and their fields
- Tutorial: Understand Credential Resolution — Step-by-step matching examples for OCI registries
- How-To: Configure Credentials for Multiple Registries — Task-oriented registry credential setup
- How-To: Configure Credentials for Signing — Task-oriented signing credential setup